Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Storytelling

In the very beginning of Maus II when Artie was
making his remarks about his father and how much he irritates him, I couldn't help but think about the phrase, “You’ll miss me when I’m gone”. Not only is
this a narrative of the holocaust, but storytelling is what kept Artie and his
father’s relationship alive. Throughout the comic, we witness Artie clinging
onto his father through these stories, because it is the only time that he
seems calm. We also witness Artie’s counseling sessions discussing his father,
and finally he admits to his wife that he already has enough regret towards his
relationship with his father. Artie tells the story of his father to remember
his father as a chance to hold onto the little memory he has of his mother; the
drawing of the grave at the end stands in place of an “in memory” dedication.

While we see Artie reach out to his
father through storytelling, it is also important to notice that Vladek does
the same to keep his son around. Vladek cared so much for Artie that he did so
much as lie about illness to get the chance of him visiting. Some of his last
words were, “So…Let’s stop, please, your tape recorder…” (Spiegelman, 136),
signifying that he was done sharing his stories. Vladek also never openly told
these stories unless he was asked to do so, hinting that he typically did not
enjoy revisiting the past but did it for the sake of keeping his son around.
These two characters stand as foils when it comes to family bonding, the son
hides his desire to be around his father, later regretting it, while the father
openly wants his son around and dies peacefully having shared everything he
had. While different, they met in the middle through storytelling. The most noteworthy concept that I
have taken from this course has been that you do not have to physically travel
to have the experience of travel. Traveling can be granted to you through the
stages of your life, others’ stories, different environments, and so many more.
Whether you are physically traveling or not, you still gain from both the
physical journey and the internal journey, and the internal journey stays with
you forever while making new physical memories.